Bristol Pride has confirmed they will be heading back to The Downs next year and are excited to announce that the Pride Day Festival will take place on Saturday, July 8, 2023. The festival will run from the 24 June – 9 July and with events to celebrate and showcase the LGBTQ+ community taking place across the city ahead of the Pride Day Festival
Record numbers attended Bristol Pride in 2022 with over 19,000 taking part in the Parade March through the city centre whilst the main festival on the Downs saw 40,000 people attend with over 100 artists performing across five stages and headline set from international superstar Carly Rae Jepsen.
As well as announcing the dates for the festival, the Bristol Pride team have also revealed that, for the first time, their Supporter Wristbands will be available early, from the Bristol Pride website. Bristol Pride explained this was a chance to allow for more active support towards the charity, help alleviate queues on the day and also gives the people the option of gifting wristbands as a fun, alternative present this festive season.
Photo by Dan Regan.
Daryn Carter, Bristol Pride director, explained: “Pride is about community at its core, we never want to make attending the parade or festival financially exclusive or inaccessible. I remember how important my first Pride was to me and I hold that close to my heart when planning the festival each year. Pride is something special and sadly many people still need the support and magic that Pride has to offer. So we are asking everyone that can afford to do so, to make sure they get a supporter wristband to help us to keep making Pride happen and continue to offer the support to those that might need Pride the most.
“We also know people struggle at this time of year to find unique or special Christmas gifts, so we thought we’d make our wristbands available early as an option for people to gift one this year to support us as a charity, while also having something really exciting to look forward to in the new year – we’ve even designed a fun gift voucher for people to download.”
Although the lineup for 2023 is still firmly under wraps, the Bristol Pride team have promised they will be building on the continued growth of the festival with some really exciting headliners joining the Main Stage on The Downs alongside incredible local artists and performers and stars from Ru Paul’s Drag Race along with a headline DJ set for the official afterparty at the O2 Academy.
The Parade March for 2023 will take place on Saturday, July 8, 2023 and continues to be free for members of the public to join and participate in. Bookings for businesses, groups and charities wanting to book their place to march in next year’s event are also now open.
Prior to the Festival Day the team have announced their two-week build up of events will run across venues in the city and will again feature highlights such as the Pride Dog Show, theatre performances, Pride Comedy Night, meet-ups, workshops and more.
For more info on Bristol Pride, CLICK HERE